Michigan Senate panel OKs bills on adoption and religion

LANSING – On 4-1 party-line votes, the Senate Families Seniors and Human Services committee passed three bills that will allow faith-based adoption agencies to refuse to serve prospective parents based on their religious beliefs.

The bills, which would allow the agencies to refuse service to same-sex or unmarried couples if that goes against their religious beliefs, are moving as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments next week on whether same-sex marriage should be legal in Michigan and several other states.

The vote came after two hours of testimony from a wide group of supporters and opponents, including several gay and straight parents who have adopted children.

Supporters, including the agencies and the Michigan Catholic Conference, say the bills are necessary to ensure as many options as possible for parents looking to adopt children.

State Rep. Eric Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale is a sponsor of the bill, and said it’s “sloppy” to say that faith-based agencies can refuse service.

“It’s more appropriate to say recuse and refer,” he said. “Faith-based agencies need to be able to recuse themselves from adoptions that would go against their faith-based beliefs.”

Melissa Buck, who has adopted four children with her husband, Chad, through St. Vincent Catholic Charities of Lansing, said she fears the loss of her agency if the bills don’t pass.

“To lose them would be devastating. If I had to transfer to another agency, would they make themselves as available and would we feel welcome?” she said. “These kids have already lost enough.”

But opponents say the bills legalize discrimination and use state money to support that discrimination.

“It offends me that my taxpayer dollars are going to an agency that feels I’m not worthy of being a parent,” said the Rev. Matthew Bode of the Detroit Cooperative Parish, who is in the process of adopting two children with his husband.

And Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, said the best interests of the children should be the top priority, not the interests of the adoption agency.

“Children who are placed in foster care or adoption have already suffered,” she said. “Why would we compound their trauma and keep them from a stable, loving home by rejecting potential foster or adoptive parents based on religious preferences?”

In the 2014-15 budget year, $19.9 million in state and federal funds went toward supporting adoption agencies for adoption and foster care services, according to the state DHS. Nearly $10 million of that total went to faith-based agencies that would be covered under the religious objection bills.

The three bills passed the House last month on mostly party line votes. But Gov. Rick Snyder has been coy about whether he’ll support the bills if they reach his desk.

He has said he will veto a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which caused a furor in Indiana and Arkansas this month, if it reaches his desk. That bill would provide a legal defense for businesses who are subject to action by the state for refusing services to individuals based on their religious beliefs.

But Snyder also said that the adoption bills would need further review and that he’s in favor of children being adopted by “loving families” and “loving parents.” He didn’t specify if that included same-sex couples.

Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, offered amendments to the bill that would require adoption agencies to let prospective parents know what their policies are before they begin the adoption process and abide by federal and state civil rights laws. But all the amendments failed. The bills now move to the full Senate for consideration.